Reforming the World's Monitary System-Question

[pms]

>This reminds me of something that always frustrates me about 
>"mainstream" economists: whether academics like Paul Krugman or pundits 
>like Robert Samualson, they all seem to ascribe the slowdown after 1973 
>to mysterious causes that no one really knows.  The dismantling of the 
>Bretton Woods systems is rarely, if ever, mentioned.
>
>

Hi gang, 

I know everybody should know this, but I don't, so, here goes.  

Was this when we went off the gold standard?  Was it a response to any
particular thing, like the cost of the war or something?  Did other
countries care?  Was it a HUGE deal?  Was it a dastardly Nixon adm. plot,
like Reagan running up the deficit so we'd have no money for
interventionist governing?

Can anyone spare a nutshell?

your grateful student-p.